Doug Lofstrom, picked Wednesday as interim CEO of the Orange County Fair and Event Center, is shown here at the 2006 Orange County Fair. ARMANDO BROWN, ARMANDO BROWN, EXCELSIOR

The Orange County Fair Board decided Wednesday to appoint a new interim CEO to manage the public fairgrounds.

Doug Lofstrom, a former executive at the fair, will take over this month from departing interim CEO Jerome Hoban.

Hoban resigned Monday from the top post at the Orange County Fair & Event Center, which manages the 150-acre fairgrounds and produces the county fair.

Hoban leaves while community activists and at least one politically appointed board member continue to question the role of those involved in the aborted attempt to sell the state-owned fairgrounds. Critics have focused on the allegation that public funds were spent to privatize the property. Hoban was vice president of operations at the height of the sale process, in 2009 and 2010, but denies any connection to consultant contracts now being scrutinized.

"There are always going to be big politics at a place as highly visible as the Orange County Fair," he said before Wednesday's meeting. "I had nothing to do with it."

Board President Doug La Belle on Wednesday also downplayed any connection to the sale inquiry.

"There was no relationship or tie-in to the existing staff," said La Belle, who said he was happy for Hoban, who will take over as CEO of the Alameda County Fair. "Jerome has served the organization very well over the years."

Lofstrom has more than 30 years of experience in the fair business, La Belle said, and was previously vice president of events at the Orange County fairgrounds. The board will conduct a search for a permanent CEO.

Before the resignation, Wednesday's meeting was intended to address Hoban's future with the fair and whether he would become the permanent chief executive.

Hoban plans to leave at the end of the month for the Northern California fair, which has an average attendance of about 600,000 people over its run, he said. The OC Fair averages about 1.4 million.

Hoban worked at the fair for nearly 21 years and oversaw the construction of a hangar-style exhibit hall and the ongoing renovation of the Pacific Amphitheatre.

His predecessor, then-CEO Steve Beazley, resigned last year. Beazley was in charge during the attempted fairgrounds sale.

One of the strongest critics of the sale process has been director Nick Berardino. He has spent much of his time on the board pursuing those he says "laundered" public funds to politically connected consultants such as former state Sen. Dick Ackerman.

"You clearly failed, failed to protect these board members," Berardino told Hoban and other staff members at the Jan. 17 board meeting. At a March board meeting, Berardino added, "We're cleaning this place up."

"Mr. Berardino's opinion is just an opinion," Hoban said Wednesday. "For anybody to question the integrity of the staff – they only did their job under the direction of the State of California – is concerning to me...especially for someone who espouses he cares about employees."

Berardino is general manager of the Orange County Employees Association and a fair board appointee of Gov. Jerry Brown. The Schwarzenegger administration tried to sell the fairgrounds.

Last month, the board gave the District Attorney's Office a report questioning the fairgrounds-sale process, and requesting that the district attorney reopen an investigation. District attorney's spokeswoman Farrah Emami said the office had not determined how to proceed.

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